The Shema, The Lord's Echad

The Shema

Hear, O Israel: 

The Lord our God, 

the Lord is One! 

You shall love the Lord your God 

with all your heart, 

with all your soul, 

and with all your strength. 

Deut 6:4

The Shema is holy to God, holy to the Jewish people and holy to us! 

Why? Because it is God’s big picture of Who He is and our position to Him and our commission from Him. 

There is ONE TRUE GOD and we are not Him – we are created in His Image, invited to be like Him and live in extraordinary union in Him– but we are not Him. It is important to have a firm grasp of the Oneness of God, He is One and He created all things for the purpose of oneness with Him. This is central to understanding God in both our relationship to Him and being motivated by Him – the echad of God is His heart’s desire!

The word echad in Hebrew is loosely translated as one, but it actually is two (or more) units existing as one unit. For an example, in Creation, God said the evening and the morning were the first (echad) day, man and woman will be joined as one (echad) flesh, and Jesus modeled that He and the Father are One (echad), and welcomed us to be in Him, and He in us as One (echad), and of course, we are one (echad) with one another, we are the One New Man (echad) both Jew and Gentile)!  

All Creation began in and from The One – and will end in The One! 

One represents the beginning of a process as well as the completion of a process, 1+1 (or more) = 1, for an example, (1) man + (1) woman = (1) one echad! Understanding the concept of echad helps us understand both our identity and role and what Mystery Babylon is attempting to hijack and copy in the world. We will see this more clearly later.

Shema means to hear.  When God spoke to the Children of Israel, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is Echad (One),” He wasn’t just saying, “OK y’all, listen up and pay attention…,” He had their attention. God was commissioning Israel with their unique process of echad in the earth which is to reveal God and the clarity of His truth. 

Hearing is a process of constructing revelation, i.e., word + word = understanding. When you see an apple, you have a complete picture of the image of an apple, but if you do not see an apple, and someone needs to describe an apple to you, then as you hear you are constructing an image of that apple in your mind, word by word by word. Hearing is the process of constructing revelation. 

Two Scriptures come to mind,

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom 10:17 

God…has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…who being the brightness of His glory and the express Image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power… Heb 1:1-3

Before we fell, we lived in a state of absolute truth, but after the fall, we internalized confusion by eating the mixed fruit of good and evil. In essence the clarity of God’s truth was now opaque or concealed. However, God would give His Word again and commissions Israel, through the Shema (the process of constructing understanding of the One True God), first with Israel personally, then to the nations.

We will see that Mystery Babylon is an enormous energy at large in the world that is constantly working to keep the reconstruction of the revelation of the One True God concealed and has hijacked and replaced the process with a corrupt echad (oneness) that is separate from God, and even claims to be God.

God’s heart’s desire is oneness with us, a harmonious and loving relationship where all parties choose, by free will, oneness-echad! From the get go, God’s invitation is inclusive to all, but His salvation is exclusive to those who choose Him as Lord. God created choice and allows us to chose W/whom we will serve.